Ellie Nieder"Bullet journaling helps me see everything laid out in front of me. I can see my whole week or month ahead of me. It helps keep my head on straight, to be honest. I would recommend bullet journaling to everyone, especially if you’re balancing work, school, and athletics."

Finnigan Hess"The reason I do all different arts in high school is because I want to do musical theater as a profession. I wanted to get a good basis for college so I can get into a good college for theater. I have auditioned for the East Central College musical twice. The first time I auditioned was for Beauty and the Beast. I was terrified.​"

Sequoia Smyser-Lewis“I’ve always been involved in art. My dad is really good at drawing and my mom has a degree in Art History, so I’ve just always been around art. It’s a really good way to express myself. I’ve always been a perfectionist about my work, but now I’m starting to be loose and see where it takes me."

Lexi Harrison"My mural is of ice cream sundaes. I painted it with other students in my painting class on the Nix Cafeteria wall. Surprisingly, it only took a couple days. We were inspired by certain artists that we were given. It’s hard to get everyone on the same page since there’s multiple people working on the same painting, but it all turned out well.​​ Aside from school work, I’ve been painting and drawing since I was around 10 years old. I’m thinking about going into graphic design after high school."

Rachel Bauche"I started dance when I was about five years old. I was just taking classes at a studio and kept on going from there. Whenever I was in eighth grade, I honestly wasn’t going to tryout for dance, but I knew other girls were going to so I decided to give it a shot. In the beginning, the dance team wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be, but we’ve definitely improved throughout the years.​"

Drex Blackburn "I’m in the class Introduction to Visual Design. I’ve just always liked art classes from elementary school and even now in high school. I like to draw, but I don’t do it often. The color wheel project we just did was cool. We had to make a shape and paint the shape into a color wheel."

11 Ways to Stay Creativeby Kate Freitag

Getting to Know Joette Brinkerby Kate Freitag

WHS Junior, Joette Brinker, has a passion for art. Joette has enjoyed drawing ever since she was a little girl.

This year, she enrolled in eight art classes, including AP Art, Ceramics, Photography II, and Sculpture.

​Joette doesn’t limit herself to one type of art because she enjoys working with different materials and on multiple canvases. Having no restrictions allows Joette to create however she wishes to. She believes that’s the real art behind it all.

Q: What inspires your work?Joette: “My mom. She went to an art college and really inspired me with her work. When I was growing up, I remember seeing her draw and just being fascinated by it, so I decided to try it myself.”

Q: How do you stay creative?Joette: “I look at other artists' work, but since a lot of my work is more spontaneous instead of realistic, I usually just put down my pencil and start doing whatever feels right.”

Q: As an artist, how do you keep challenging yourself?Joette: “Just doing things I know I don’t like to do. We did printmaking in my AP art class, and I didn’t care for it because you couldn’t take back the scratches on the metal.”

Q: How does constructive criticism help you stay creative and improve your work?Joette: “I see the love I put into my artwork, so sometimes I may be blind to flaws. When other people look at my artwork, it helps me fix those aspects I didn’t recognize.”

Q: How do you keep progressing as an artist?Joette: “Practice continuously. I did a challenge where everyday I drew for 10 minutes. As the days went on, I saw my drawings get better and better because I was practicing these motor skills over and over.”

Q: What is one unique aspect about yourself as an artist?Joette: “I don’t like people telling me what to do with my art, so if you want me to draw a picture of someone’s face, most people would just think about it as a normal, round face, but I like to make it wonky and weird. It really portrays a new perspective to others.”

Q: What is your favorite piece of art you have created?Joette: “I did this oddly shaped 18 x 24 drawing of a head. I used cool and warm colors throughout the drawing and incorporated old candy foil wrappers for the background to give it texture and make the colors of the face pop.”

Q: What is some advice you would give to other artists?Joette: “Explore new things because you might find something you like and you may be able to use those skills with something else you know how to do.”